Facebook and Publicis to Share Data and Skills

Facebook and advertising giant Publicis have reportedly agreed a c.$500m multi-year partnership, to develop ad targeting and measurement products - including the integration of Facebook's data into Publicis' media and mix modeling platform.

The deal will initially be available to Publicis firms in North America, with a global rollout in the coming months. While terms were not disclosed, sources quoted on www.adage.com suggested the half billion dollar value.

Laura Desmond, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group, which led the negotiations for Publicis, told the Wall Street Journal 'You can boil it down to integration and data. We're the first agency network that will have this comprehensive level of data and access'.

The deal also gives Publicis access to Facebook engineers and analysts to develop better measurement tools for rich media; and will develop products for Instagram and using online video, combining these into integrated planning, targeting and measurement tools.

Facebook's VP of Global Marketing Solutions Carolyn Everson told AdAge: 'This is the first time we have all of the different elements that will allow clients to reach a significant scale of 100 million people a day in the US and [specific] audiences within the 100 million the client wants to reach.'

Starom and MediaVest have already struck partnership deals with Twitter, a year ago, and with Google and then Yahoo! last autumn; while Facebook already works extensively with Publicis rivals WPP and Omnicom and says that while deals like the latest are developing 'unique' products, it will not be shutting anyone out.